Sound Selection

Ninja Beats

Ninja Beats

New member
Sorry for my english.

To me it seems that hip hop production(or edm, doesnt matter) is not about melodies, its more about sound selections or sound design.

Most of the time i am spending time on making beats is sound selection and not melody creation. I know music theory so melodies its not so hard for me.

I think that the easiest way to add some sounds to my beat is to repeat that pattern, and fast click "Next preset" on synths and play one note, then click next again and again and then when i hear that some sound fits good in my mix then i create melody.

This is creative process cuz you dont know what preset(instrument) will sound good in your mix. Sometimes i know what will sound good in this beat, i have that sound in my mind, but sometimes when i find these sound (instrument or preset) i hear that it sounds bad. So my mind sometimes lie to me, but my ears dont.

Also it seems that the less sounds you have in your mix then its easier to found new sound that fits good in the mix. So if you have bassline only, then many lead synths sound good with bassline, but when you have bassline and lead then its not so easy to find new synth that sound good, cuz you have fat lead already and new synth will fight with that lead in the mix.

What do you think about that?)
 
Your English is fine!

And yes, that is one way to go about it (random-chance type selection). But you are also talking about other creative issues as well. Arranging and orchestration and what I suppose you could call "pre-mixing." the more you can learn to hear these things in your head (accurately), the better. Some people call this ability to hear/write/arrange music in your head Audiation. People like Mozart and Beethoven had incredible audiation skills...

GJ
 
You have to understand what the elements are in any given song. For example in hip hop you have percussion, bassline a rhythm section and leads. Your rhythm section is playing your cord progression. The bassline supports this progression and the lead is an expansion of the cord progression. Listen closely to other songs and pick out what each element or instrument is doing in support of the song..
 
tomkillsjerry said:
You have to understand what the elements are in any given song. For example in hip hop you have percussion, bassline a rhythm section and leads. Your rhythm section is playing your cord progression. The bassline supports this progression and the lead is an expansion of the cord progression. Listen closely to other songs and pick out what each element or instrument is doing in support of the song..
Click to expand...

All songs are different. Sometimes bass play melody, lead supports this bass 2 or 3 octaves higher.
Many hip hop songs dont have any chords at all. No pads, no pianos.
Some of songs have chords (rhytm or pads) and bass play the root key of the chords and lead play melody.

Sometimes i choose pad sound with fast attack time and play it like a lead :)
 
Another approach (which is harder initially but will teach you a great deal) is to imagine the sound you want then use a blank patch and your VST of choice to create it from scratch.

This will obviously require synthesis knowledge so best to start with simple sounds ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top